{"id":29367,"date":"2020-10-15T19:13:59","date_gmt":"2020-10-15T23:13:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=29367"},"modified":"2020-10-15T19:13:59","modified_gmt":"2020-10-15T23:13:59","slug":"atp-cologne-quarterfinal-predictions-hurkacz-bautista-agut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2020\/10\/15\/atp-cologne-quarterfinal-predictions-hurkacz-bautista-agut\/","title":{"rendered":"ATP Cologne Quarterfinal Predictions Including Hubert Hurkacz vs Roberto Bautista Agut"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We\u2019ve finally reached quarterfinal day at the ATP Bett1HULKS Indoors in Cologne. Just eight men remain in contention in Cologne: six Europeans, one North American, and one African representative. Will the top three seeds keep advancing or will they succumb to their rivals on Friday?<\/p>\n<h2>ATP Cologne Quarterfinal Predictions<\/h2>\n<h4>Alexander Zverev vs Lloyd Harris<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head to head:<\/strong> first meeting<\/p>\n<p>Had Zverev written an ideal script for his opener against Fernando Verdasco, it would have closely resembled the actual match they played on Thursday. The top seed didn\u2019t make a single double fault and dropped only six points on serve en route to a pleasant 6-4 6-1 win. Speaking of service games, Harris\u2019 serve has been making waves in Cologne. Through two main draw rounds, the South African has fired 20 aces. It might not seem like a lot, but the court is incredibly slow. This duel will mark the first time Harris faces a Top 10 player away from a Major. In three such occurrences at Slams, the Johannesburg native always managed to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/cgi-bin\/player-classic.cgi?p=LloydGeorgeMuirheadHarris&amp;f=ACareerqqITop_10qq\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">steal a set<\/a>, so he will put up a fight for sure. But there\u2019s a vast chasm between challenging and effectively beating Zverev.<br \/>\n<em>\u00a0Prediction: Zverev in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"xHlQG0kTRztCzJXqzTGXng\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1229086218\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'xHlQG0kTRztCzJXqzTGXng',sig:'3bnar2-749-X1qT4_8xdSzjOtivzaK6zzmzX7lkwUCI=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1229086218',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Dennis Novak vs Alejandro Davidovich Fokina<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head to head:<\/strong> Davidovich Fokina 1-0 Novak<\/p>\n<p>As expected, a professional tennis player focused on winning tennis matches like Novak had no trouble defeating the unruly Benoit Paire and whatever is clouding his mind at the moment. Having previously beaten Jordan Thompson in straights, the Austrian has reached his maiden tour-level quarterfinal in convincing fashion. However, Davidovich will represent a much tougher test. The Spaniard collected a statement victory over Marin Cilic, overcoming a 6-3 2-0 deficit. After putting just a 52% of his first serves in play in the opening set, Davidovich elevated that number to a robust 73% afterward and it paid dividends. If Cilic and his massive weapons were unable to hit through the Next Gen talent, neither will Novak.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Davidovich Fokina in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"ogr-V0HtT5BwXVTb9kLn8w\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1229089360\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'ogr-V0HtT5BwXVTb9kLn8w',sig:'9b9jVUL5INPkyqSAzs284rr_Gd_NVJNi3C5G_jQm8Hk=',w:'396px',h:'594px',items:'1229089360',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Radu Albot vs Felix Auger-Aliassime<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head to head:<\/strong> first meeting<\/p>\n<p>Albot, whose ranking would have collapsed in a normal year, has won consecutive matches for the first time all season. This week, the counterpunching Moldovan edged Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Oscar Otte in closely contested battles. Meanwhile, Auger-Aliassime started off his Cologne campaign with a bang, winning 6-4 6-1 over Henri Laaksonen. Once he clinched the first set with a break, the Canadian took off and never looked back. I believe the slow surface is Auger-Aliassime\u2019s ally because it lets him time his forehand correctly. One thing is clear: the outcome of this match depends on Auger-Aliassime\u2019s level of execution. If he swings freely but with enough margin, he\u2019ll reach the semis. Albot\u2019s only chance is if the 20-year-old starts spraying errors left and right for an hour straight.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Auger-Aliassime in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"uDabcAvsROByKLUXm-fk5w\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1229090750\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'uDabcAvsROByKLUXm-fk5w',sig:'lsFPLXmUcXS8Zq4YiSA0YUT0GUXMQtJGKMH8zsp3Xwk=',w:'396px',h:'594px',items:'1229090750',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Hubert Hurkacz vs Roberto Bautista Agut<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head to head:<\/strong> Bautista Agut 1-0 Hurkacz<\/p>\n<p>The World No. 13 escaped a tight debut against Gilles Simon, whom he had never beaten on hard court before. Bautista Agut prevailed 6-4 7-6, winning just 51% of the points. In order to punch his ticket to the semis he\u2019ll have to go through Hurkacz, who has yet to lose a set on German soil too. Their previous encounter was also on hard, but Cincinnati\u2019s court is lightning fast compared to Cologne\u2019s. I anticipate a hard-fought affair to eventually tilt in Bautista\u2019s favor due to his vaunted resilience. Hurkacz will incur in one too many mistakes and that will cost him the match.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Bautista Agut in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo from Getty.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We\u2019ve finally reached quarterfinal day at the ATP Bett1HULKS Indoors in Cologne. Just eight men remain in contention in Cologne: six Europeans, one North American, and one African representative. Will the top three seeds keep advancing or will they succumb to their rivals on Friday? ATP Cologne Quarterfinal Predictions Alexander Zverev vs Lloyd Harris Head [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1663,"featured_media":28936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[69,3],"tags":[5338,85,12883,12805,12829,12801,2405,12884,1219,2916,12886,3643,4631,12885,447],"class_list":["post-29367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","category-atp","tag-alejandro-davidovich-fokina","tag-alexander-zverev","tag-alexander-zverev-vs-lloyd-harris-prediction","tag-atp-cologne-indoors","tag-atp-cologne-predictions","tag-bett1hulks-indoors","tag-dennis-novak","tag-dennis-novak-vs-alejandro-davidovich-fokina-prediction","tag-felix-auger-aliassime","tag-hubert-hurkacz","tag-hubert-hurkacz-vs-roberto-bautista-agut-prediction","tag-lloyd-harris","tag-radu-albot","tag-radu-albot-vs-felix-auger-aliassime-prediction","tag-roberto-bautista-agut"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1663"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}